False Start
by hoddypeak
Summary: A Fake Dating AU where Hiccup and Astrid, each other's best friends, decide to get engaged as a senior year prank. Except nobody's really surprised. Except for Hiccup and Astrid themselves.
1. Chapter 1

**I had a dream that my favourite actor proposed to me with a plastic ring. So you may thank (or blame) my dream for the existence of this.**  
**There will be 3 chapters :)**

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Nobody knew when and how exactly the tradition had begun at Berk Gymnasium. It had been ongoing for years and it didn't seem to be in anybody's interest to put an end to it, because A) it was funny and B) once people heard about it on their first year, they were so eager to participate that there would be loads of rioting if it were banned.

At the end of each school year, the third graders came up with zany pranks to end their studies at Berk Gymnasium with a blow. Everyone wanted to be the best; the one to pull the prank that would be talked about even at the start of the next school year. Last year, the best one was undoubtedly done by Eret who one day had brought ten chickens from his parents' farm to school, and that had created a slight chaos, to say the least. Chicken feathers had still been found in the oddest of places when they had been a couple months into this school year.

So yeah, the expectations were high, and nobody that planned to participate wanted to underperform. This was also the case for Hiccup and Astrid. Currently on their third year at Berk Gymnasium, they had been best friends since kindergarten and were essentially, not literally, inseparable. They did everything together and there was nothing they didn't know about each other. Or at least that was what they both thought to be true.

One day after school they were walking home together as always. They took the same route they always did and dodged the little ponds that last night's rain had created on the gravel road that went through a pine forest that was near the part of the town where they lived. Everything was pretty much the way it always was, except for one thing.

They were discussing what type of a prank they should pull in order for them to go down in Berk Gymnasium's history. There had been ideas, many of them in fact, but they hadn't come up with any _good_ ideas. They knew for sure that the Thorston twins would do something crazy. Like 'let's put everyone's lives on the line and receive detention for the rest of the school year' type of crazy. Everyone else's plans they hadn't the slightest clue of (mostly because others knew how to shut their cake holes meanwhile the twins seemed to lack of this ability).

"What if we dress up as vampires and throw fake blood all around school?" Hiccup suggested as he took a jump to cross a big pond. His backpack hit against his back once he landed on the other side.

Astrid thought on it and shook her head. "No, that isn't something that people will remember. There are also people that faint at the sight of blood, and unlike the twins, I do want to avoid detention."

"Yeah, you're probably right," he replied.

They kept on walking in silence, their brains desperately trying to come up with something. There were only two months left until they would graduate, and they needed to start preparing their prank as soon as possible. It felt like all the good ideas had already been done, was the problem.

Sure, they could copy someone from previous years and just alter the prank slightly, but it wouldn't feel like it was their own creation. Neither would anyone be impressed by a recycled idea.

"I feel like having something sweet," Astrid stated suddenly. "Let's go to the market."

There was a small grocery store at the end of the road they were walking on. It was Friday, so it actually made sense for them to buy some sweets – they had been planning on watching movies all night anyway, and if there was something that made movie nights better, it was sweets.

On they went and by the edge of the forest they could already see the market. It was one of those small, local stores that were a little more expensive than the big grocery stores but still perfect for urgent occasions, like when you ran out of milk or flour, or you got a sudden craving for candy and chips.

They entered the shop and instantly headed for the aisle where all the good stuff was. Astrid grabbed a bag of her favourite chips and proceeded to the candy section.

"What do you feel like having?" she asked Hiccup as she eyed the selection. "And please, not anything sour because that just sucks into my lips and ruins the entire night for me."

Hiccup raised his eyebrow. "You're forcing me to watch two horror movies in one night and now you're banning my favourite type of candy from me? What is this cloud of superiority that you're walking on today?"

Astrid tore her eyes off the candy bags and gave her best friend a smile that revealed her upper teeth. "Horror and sour don't go well together. I'm sorry but I don't make the rules. It's a fact proved by millions."

"Of course it is," Hiccup said and nodded. "How could I be so uneducated?"

"Shame on you," Astrid responded and bent down to see the selection on the lower shelves. Her eyes landed on something and she took two Kinder eggs in her hand and showed them to Hiccup as she straightened up. "What do you think? In honour of Easter? We could have them now and save the chips for the movie night."

Hiccup just shrugged. "Works for me, haven't had one of those since I was like ten."

"Neither have I. So Kinder it is," she said in a 'case closed' tone and turned around to go to the cashier.

They paid for their snacks and headed out of the store. Astrid took her backpack and shoved the bag of chips into it, first breaking the packaging so that all the air would come out and it would actually fit in her small backpack.

It was such a lovely weather after so many days of nothing but rain, and it would've felt like such a waste to go inside. They both agreed to go to the nearby café to eat their Kinder eggs while enjoying a cup of coffee or, in Astrid's case, a cup of tea.

It was only a two-minute walk from the market to the café. They were such loyal and frequent customers that they only needed to enter and say: 'we'll have the usual' and the lady behind the counter knew exactly what they wanted. Their town wasn't exactly big, so the number of places to spend time at were very limited. Hiccup and Astrid had crowned this small café as the best option for a casual hang-out time, which was why they were so well-known by all the workers.

"Gosh, I wish we had some wave of inspiration and the prank idea would just come to us," Astrid brought up the subject again while unwrapping her chocolate egg. She flattened the paper foil on the table and placed the egg on top of it.

"I know right? We will never come up with anything if we're trying to force the idea out of us," Hiccup said and frowned.

The lady walked up to them with their order. She put them down on the table along with the bill and disappeared out of sight. Hiccup and Astrid took their cups and blew gently into them before taking their first sips.

"I hope everybody else is struggling as much as we are. I mean, it's such a big thing and it needs to be remarkable. How many at Berk have actually got the creativity for it?" Astrid wondered absent-mindedly as she broke the chocolate egg in half and took the other piece in between her thumb and index finger.

"I can imagine Fishlegs coming up with something brilliant, but I don't think he's got the nerve for it," Hiccup said as he also put his egg on the spread-out paper foil.

Astrid nodded in agreement and took a bite of the egg. As she was munching on it, she took the plastic shell that contained a surprise toy and opened it with a small pop. When she took out the toy, her face lit up in amusement and she held it out for Hiccup to see.

"Look, a ring! The ten-year old me would've given anything to have this," she said with a laugh and put it on her ring finger. She jokingly started humming to the well-known wedding tune and stretched out her hand to see the ring better from a distance.

As Hiccup watched his best friend have the time of her life with the toy ring, the most brilliant idea dawned on him. "We should get engaged," he blurted out before he had time to think his sentence through.

"Excuse me, what the fuck?" Astrid said and looked at her friend as though he had grown several extra heads.

"No, wait, that came out wrong," he said quickly and shook his head rapidly. "What I mean is our prank should be us getting engaged."

"But we're not even dating," Astrid said bluntly but the many years of friendship told Hiccup that she hadn't completely abandoned his idea yet.

"That'd make it even more memorable. You know, we've been hiding our relationship for many years and now we're finally ready to come clean about it. Everyone would be talking about us!"

Astrid thought about it and Hiccup couldn't stop the smile from spreading across his face as he saw how his best friend started to like the idea more and more by the second.

"That's actually an amazing idea and something that could only come out of your brain, I'm impressed," she finally said and grinned at him, clearly pleased with the idea. "What are we going to do with the rings?"

Hiccup ignored the chocolate egg and went for the plastic capsule immediately. He opened it and there was a small toy car that needed assembly. He showed it to Astrid. Instead of a frown, an even wider smile appeared on her face and Hiccup couldn't figure out why.

"Do you know what this means?" she asked him in an excited tone.

Hiccup waited for her to continue.

"This means we are going to be eating lots of Kinder eggs tonight."

He couldn't help laughing. It was all so ridiculous but at the same time bloody brilliant. He couldn't wait for them to get home and start planning. On top of that, he couldn't wait for them to start _practising_ how to be like a couple.

Because if there was something that Astrid didn't know about Hiccup, it was the fact that he was absolutely and irrevocably in love with her. He had realised that last year, and ever since his daily life involved suffering at various tempos. He tried to look for any signals that might tell him whether or not Astrid felt the same way about him, but that girl was so god damn good at concealing her feelings that it was impossible to read her if she wanted to be. And the only reason Hiccup hadn't told her about his feelings was the fear that it would affect their friendship in the worst way possible.

When they finished their drinks, they paid for them and ran back to the market, giggling at their stupid idea. Inside the market they grabbed a box full of Kinder eggs and took a few more from another box for good measure. The cashier looked at them questioningly as they unloaded the contents on the counter. There were at least 50 eggs.

"It's for science," Astrid said while trying to supress laughter, and the cashier just nodded slowly and looked totally unconvinced by the explanation.

The duo decided to go to Hiccup's place because it was more unlikely for his parents to come home while they were discussing through their master plan. They needed to rush so that the sun wouldn't have time to melt the chocolate and make the ring hunt unnecessarily messy.

"I can't believe we're actually going to do this," Hiccup said and looked at Astrid who was still smiling from ear to ear.

"I know right? This is going to beat Eret's chickens easily, we might even be crowned as the best prankers of all time!" Astrid said happily and looked a bit dreamy. Hiccup found her enthusiasm endearing and when Astrid wasn't looking, he gave her an admiring glance.

He might as well start practising now, right?

They reached his house after about ten minutes and they agreed on putting the plastic bag full of Kinder eggs in the fridge for a moment just in case the chocolate had melted a bit. In the meantime, they went upstairs where Hiccup's room was located and they closed the door; even though it was unlikely for his parents to appear until night time, they still didn't want to take risks. It was important that only they knew it wasn't real.

"So," Astrid started once the door was closed behind her. "When should we start?"

"The sooner, the better, I'd say. We need to keep up the pretence for at least a couple weeks before we tell the truth."

Astrid nodded. "Everyone needs to get used to the idea that the school now has an engaged couple."

"Exactly," Hiccup said excitedly. "I wonder if our friends are going to believe us, though."

She leaned onto the closed door as she thought about it. "We just need to be convincing. We have to make up a fake story about how we started dating and why we kept it a secret so that we both tell the same thing to people. If they hear two different stories from us, our prank will be ruined."

"I like the way you're thinking," Hiccup said and winked without thinking. Astrid raised her eyebrow in confusion but didn't give voice to the question that was clearly written on her face. When he realised what he just did, he quickly came up with something to say so that the conversation wouldn't be led to a dangerous territory: "So, how should we do it?"

Astrid moved from the door and walked up to Hiccup's desk. It was messy but his best friend still knew how to navigate through it, and in no time did she find a notebook and a pen and jumped on Hiccup's bed. He followed her lead and sat next to her, looking at the blank piece of paper in front of them.

"We started dating soon after starting at Berk Gymnasium," Astrid said and wrote that down. "We've been friends since forever so it all just happened…naturally?"

"Sounds good."

"I was the one to confess first."

"You absolutely weren't."

"Why not? It's not like you'd ever have the guts to do it," she said teasingly and laughed.

Hiccup made a face at that. Only if she had an idea how right she was…

He recovered quickly so that Astrid wouldn't notice the expression written on his face. "Alright, so you were the one to confess, that's fine, but I was the one to propose. This is my idea after all," Hiccup demanded and tried his best to sound like there was no room for discussion.

Astrid just chuckled. "Fine, however you want it," she said and wrote it down.

They spent half an hour writing the made-up story of how they became a couple. The result of their brainstorming was quite impressive, and they promised each other that they would learn it by heart by Monday. And after that they fetched the Kinder eggs that they would have to start unwrapping. Once the contents of the plastic bag were on Hiccup's bed, they just stared at the pile and shook their heads in amusement.

"I can't seriously believe we're doing this," Astrid repeated Hiccup's words.

He laughed. "What are we going to do with the rest if we find a ring from one of the first ones?"

"Well, I don't know about you, but I don't mind eating these bad boys," Astrid said without missing a beat and unwrapped one chocolate egg. "For good health," she said and 'toasted' the egg in the air before breaking it and putting the half into her mouth as a whole.

They worked their way through the eggs, the pile of toys becoming bigger and bigger. At some point they stopped eating the chocolate because there was too much of it and they had begun to feel sickened by it. They kept up their friendly banter and it could've easily passed for a casual hang-out if it weren't for the occasional comments about what was coming for them on Monday and that making the conversation between them slightly awkward for a second or two.

They both were excited but also uncertain. Neither of them had ever dated – Hiccup was sure he had never found anyone else because Astrid was the one for him, but what they were about to do was going to be the closest he'd ever be to actually dating that girl. He had told himself several times to stop pining, but he couldn't help it. Astrid had everything. She was everything. Hiccup loved her too much.

"I found it!" Astrid cried excitedly and held a new toy ring up in the air in her outstretched hand. "Try it on!"

She tossed the ring to Hiccup and he almost missed it. He tried it on his ring finger, and to his surprise, it fit. Of course it was a bit tight considering it was designed for small children, but it didn't feel uncomfortable at all. He raised his head to meet Astrid's eyes that gleamed with elation. She grabbed Hiccup's hand and put it next to her left hand where she had her ring. Hiccup hadn't noticed that she had not taken it off since she put it on at the café.

And, okay. Looking at their hands, with a plastic ring on each, was definitely not on the list of things he had expected to witness today. Or ever.

"Oh my god, for toy rings they look perfect," Astrid said and looked up at Hiccup. Hiccup did the same and they just looked and grinned at each other for a moment.

"This is going to be the prank Berk will never forget," Hiccup said, sounding fully convinced.

"I couldn't have said it better myself, Hic," Astrid agreed.

Monday couldn't come any sooner.

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**Please let me know what you think, reviews always motivate me to write! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you so much for the great response the first chapter received, I was happy beyond words! Thank you, thank you, thank you!**  
**I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I had fun writing it! :)**

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Monday couldn't have come faster. It had felt as though the entire weekend had gone before Hiccup could say 'I am in a fake relationship with Astrid Hofferson'.

Because that had been pretty much the only sentence in his head for two days, yet it still hadn't fully hit him that it was, in fact, true. Every time he tried to think about how to act like this was old news to him at school, his mind was consumed by that very thought, and now he felt as though he hadn't revised for an important exam and he was about to collapse from the weight on his shoulder.

He felt nervous, excited, nervous, terrified, scared and nervous, and when he dug deep enough, he was able to identify a sentiment of happiness too, but that was always destroyed by nervousness before he had enough time to bask in that feel of happy that their prank brought to him.

Hiccup and Astrid had texted each other about it all weekend. They couldn't hang out because Astrid's parents had suddenly decided that it would be a good idea to go visit her grandparents over the weekend. So they couldn't practise the entire 'being a couple' thing, but they both agreed that they shouldn't be all over each other anyway. It was school, after all.

They would stick to hand-holding and a couple kisses here and there. Perhaps they'd share a few hugs more than they normally did. Nothing too outstanding, but still different enough from their casual behaviour for everyone to notice them. That was the plan; it was clearly written in their chat that Hiccup had re-read at least a couple hundred times.

How could a simple 'I hope you're a good kisser' text from Astrid make him want to throw himself off his bedroom window and scream because – oh my god – he was going to be kissing her? Was this his life?

Sure, they often sent each other suggestive texts, but it was all part of the friendly banter and the nature of their friendship, so neither of them ever thought too much into it. But now since the texts were about something that was seriously going to happen, it was like Hiccup had never seen a text like that coming from Astrid.

He probably was in too deep.

On Monday, they walked to school in complete silence. The idea had seemed brilliant on Friday and even during the weekend, but now that they were actually about to do it, there were many things that made them doubtful and uncertain.

What if nobody believed them?

What if they didn't convince anyone?

Were they just making a fool of themselves?

But there they were, walking on that familiar road through the forest with plastic rings on their fingers and the made-up story imprinted into their brains. They were well-prepared, for the most part at least; Hiccup felt very much unprepared, but he wasn't going to tell that to Astrid. What if she backed away because of it? They had practised an answer to a couple of questions they were expecting to receive from the most curious people – their friends – so they should be fine.

"So, this is it," Astrid said nervously when they were in front of the school building. She tried to conceal her anxiety behind a fake laugh, but her attempt was completely unsuccessful.

There were already people walking in, talking to each other, not having any clue what was about to happen. Hiccup felt as though the ring on his finger had now started flashing in neon colours so that everybody would notice it, which of course was the idea of the prank, but why did he need to feel so exposed because of it?

"Yeah. Ready?" Hiccup asked and received a nod from his fake girlfriend.

"Uh, how should we do it?" she asked and tilted her head towards the entrance door to Berk Gymnasium.

Hiccup furrowed his eyebrows in thought before he replied; "We don't have the same class in the morning, so let's just walk in while holding hands and, I don't know, improvise?"

Astrid groaned and slammed her hand against her forehead. "I totally forgot that you're not in Biology with me!" she said sadly. "I thought we could support each other all day."

"It's just two hours, we can do it," Hiccup said, not sure if he tried to convince himself or Astrid more with his words. Either way, what he said didn't bring any comfort to him and it didn't seem to lighten up his best friend's mood, too.

Astrid sighed and their eyes met. Her face that was clouded in hopelessness was soon embellished by a look of determination, and a small smile drew on her lips as she spoke; "Alright, my soon-to-be-fake-husband, let's do it," she said and intertwined her left hand with Hiccup's right one.

Walking towards that big building, his hand in Astrid's, was a whole new feeling he had never experienced before. Hiccup tried to find words to describe it, but the only image he had in his head was that of the gates of Heaven. And that pretty much perfectly described how he felt walking like this, so he gave up trying. Why find words when one could paint them with their mind's eyes?

Once they were inside the school building, their hands still intertwined, they eyed their surroundings, trying to act as natural as possible. There were a lot of students standing in the hallway, chatting away casually and minding their own business. As far as Hiccup was aware, nobody had paid any attention to them yet.

"So…what now?" Astrid asked him under her breath.

Hiccup turned to look at her. His heart began beating dangerously fast as he realised what was the most natural thing to happen now. "We should part ways with a good-bye kiss."

Astrid nodded. "Okay."

And, okay, Hiccup hadn't expected her to agree to kissing so quickly. Perhaps she just wanted the rumours to start spreading as soon as possible so that their prank could officially begin.

Yeah, that was it. He ever-so-slightly shook his head to rid himself of the other ridiculous alternates to his thoughts and he built up all his courage when he grabbed Astrid by the waist and spun her around, so they were facing each other. They locked their eyes for a moment and Astrid nodded again as though to let Hiccup know she was ready.

It wasn't like they were going to have a full-on make out session right there in front of the unsuspecting students, but it was still a very nervous experience. They were best friends, and kissing wasn't part of that package deal.

Hiccup gave a quick glance at the crowd in front of them before he turned his attention back to Astrid. He moved her bangs out of her eye and they stared at each other. Hiccup moved his left hand from Astrid's hips and placed it around her jawline as he leaned slowly towards her. He glanced at her lips, which were slightly parted, and it took him all his willpower to stop him from just clashing their mouths together and kissing every inch of her face to the point she was sent into oblivion. Their lips finally touched, and Hiccup closed his eyes and just let their mouths move in sync.

There was a flood of emotions going through him. On one hand, it felt strange to be kissing his best friend. On the other hand, it felt so god damn great to be kissing his best friend. However fake the kiss was, he was happy it even existed, because now he finally knew what Astrid's lips felt like against his and it was everything he had ever imagined and a bit more.

The kiss lasted for no longer than a couple seconds, but it had caught some students' attention. When they parted and looked at the people in the hallway, they could spot some that were staring at them. Hiccup hoped that his ring had been noticed by someone since it had been so gloriously displayed next to Astrid's beautiful face.

"See you after Biology," Astrid said quietly and smiled awkwardly at him. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it before she left him amongst all the students. People had started whispering to one another so there were more pairs of curious eyes on him. Without looking at anyone, he turned around to head towards the classroom where his English class would take place. Now that they were done with the first step that would make their fellow students spread rumours from left, right and centre, their prank suddenly felt like a brilliant idea again. Now there was only the trickiest part left…

"Wait a minute, what's that thing you've got on your hand?"

…and that was convincing their friends.

Hiccup looked at Fishlegs that was sitting two seats from him in English. His friend was staring at Hiccup's left hand with squinted eyes. The ring looked ridiculous on Hiccup – it really was designed for little girls, and it was obvious from the emerald green plastic stone that was heart-shaped. Astrid's was purple, but at least the stone was round.

"It's a ring," Hiccup stated simply and swung his hand a little to give Fishlegs a better view of the ring for a split second.

"It's on your ring finger. And it's on your left hand," Fishlegs said in a 'you are such an idiot please put it on some other finger' tone.

"I'm aware of that, thanks," Hiccup said with a smile. Deep down he was nervous about having this conversation with his friend, but he hoped it wasn't visible on the outside. He could easily ruin this prank by saying one misplaced word that would reveal everything. Fishlegs was too attentive. "It's where it's supposed to be."

"Oh," his friend just said and he stared at Hiccup with his mouth shaped into an O.

Fishlegs stared at Hiccup's hand for a couple more seconds until he decided to drop the subject and pay attention to whatever the teacher was educating them on in front.

Hiccup felt his phone buzz against his thigh and he quickly took it out of his pocket. On his lock screen there was a new message from Astrid, or The Goddess Herself as she had once changed her name to on Hiccup's phone (and why would he change it since those two literally meant the same thing to him?)

_The twins took the bait, it looks like we're officially engaged now ;)_

Seeing that text from her shouldn't have made him smile like an idiot, but it did and he had such a wonderful feeling in his chest because of it. He didn't open the message, he just read it on the lock screen because their English teacher had a very strict policy on phones in class, so he slid it back into the pocket of his jeans and moved his attention to the lecture, thinking back to the last part of Astrid's text and feeling like he was on cloud nine.

He definitely was in too deep.

* * *

Since they started at 10 on Mondays, the next time Hiccup and Astrid saw each other was during the lunch time. After his English lecture had ended, he had finally replied to the text and they agreed to meet before going to the cafeteria to have lunch. People needed to see them together as much as possible these first couple of days so that everyone at Berk would know about their engagement.

Their meeting point was by the toilets in the main entrance hall. Since it was the lunch time, there were barely any students around and the hallway was mostly deserted. Hiccup leaned against the wall and kept tapping his foot on the floor. He was waiting for Astrid who was late for whatever reason, and he hoped that she would appear soon because the lunch break didn't last forever and his stomach had been making aggressive sounds since the first half of his English lecture.

Soon Astrid was sprinting down the stairs towards Hiccup, skipping the last two steps with a jump. Before he had time to say even 'hi', the girl had already swung her hands around his neck and was now hugging him tightly. Apparently that audience of five needed to get a little taste of their prank, too (not that Hiccup was complaining).

"I'm sorry for keeping you waiting," she said as she broke the hug. "The twins didn't leave me alone, they were skinning me alive with their stupid questions, but I told them we'd tell them everything when the entire gang is together."

"Which would be now," Hiccup stated, to which Astrid just nodded. "And it's fine, I wasn't here for very long anyway. Should we head to the cafeteria? I'm starving."

"So am I," she said and with that, they were off.

Their hands quickly found one another, which made Astrid giggle silently. Hiccup gave her a questioning look.

"It's just so absurd that we're doing this," she explained and looked at their hands.

Hiccup chuckled as well. "Tell me about it."

In the cafeteria they bought some snacks and approached the table their friends were sitting around. Heather was eyeing between their intertwined hands and their faces, clearly trying to draw some assumption from the view before her. Judging by the looks they all were giving them, it was obvious that they all had heard about the rumours by now.

"Explain," Snotlout demanded the moment Hiccup and Astrid were within earshot.

They both sat their trays down on the table before they pulled two chairs from underneath the table. When Hiccup sat down, Astrid looked between him and her chair in thought before pushing the chair back in. What she did instead was sit on Hiccup's lap, which, okay. The only natural reaction to it was placing his hands around Astrid and hug her from behind.

He loved quality cinema.

"Well, we're together," Astrid said shortly, and Hiccup could _hear_ the smile from her voice.

"That much was obvious," Heather said, raising her eyebrow. "But like, since when?"

"Since the freshman year," Hiccup answered, tilting his head slightly so that he could be seen behind Astrid.

"I KNEW IT!" Heather cried out triumphantly and earned a couple curious looks from other students around them. "Snotlout, pay up!" she continued and stretched out her hand in Snotlout's direction.

Both Hiccup and Astrid looked at Heather with plates as eyes. "E-excuse me?" Hiccup stammered.

"Hey! I thought we both agreed that they're dating so the bet is no longer valid!" Snotlout protested and flailed his hands in the air.

"Bet? What bet?" Astrid asked demandingly.

"Yeah, what bet, and why wasn't I involved?" Tuffnut asked and looked angrily at Heather and Snotlout.

"We had a running bet on whether you're dating or not," Heather explained happily, still waiting for Snotlout to pay her. "And for the record, I never said we were done with the bet, so it's still valid and I just won, so give me the 20 bucks I deserve."

Snotlout groaned and muttered something about injustice as he rummaged his backpack and gave Heather the money. The girl said a simple 'thanks' before she slid the bill into her hoodie's pocket.

Hiccup and Astrid were so stunned by the piece of news they just received that neither of them knew what to say.

Finally Astrid found her voice; "Oh come on, we weren't that obvious," she said, laughing nervously. She clearly didn't know how to respond to their friends' reaction, and if Hiccup was honest with himself, he wasn't sure himself, too.

Here they all were, sitting in front of them, grinning like they all had been waiting for them to reveal their little secret. Had his crush on Astrid been that obvious? He thought his longing glances in her direction had always been discreet and he always did them when he was sure nobody was paying attention to him. Did this mean he had failed miserably?

"Are you for real?" Heather laughed. "You think that you talking about your prince charming all the time wasn't obvious?"

"Or all those doodles Hiccup has made of Astrid during History," Fishlegs stated. "And the way he sighs–"

"Okay, okay, enough! We get it, we weren't as subtle about it as we thought!" Hiccup said, throwing his other hand in the air as a sign of defeat.

He could feel his cheeks become redder by the second and he was glad that Astrid couldn't see his face right now. He didn't want her to find out about his feelings for her, at least not like this. What way was the right way, that he didn't know, but it didn't really matter right now.

The rest of the lunch break they had to tell in detail everything about their secret relationship. They told their friends how Astrid had accidentally let it slip that she liked Hiccup, and how everything had just fallen together like puzzle pieces from there. They also explained why they had never told anyone about it; at first they wanted to just enjoy it between each other, and eventually the secrecy went on for too long and they didn't know how to bring it up anymore. Hiccup also made sure to point out that he was the one to propose last Friday.

"You proposed to Astrid with _that_?" Snotlout questioned and pointed at the ring that was on Astrid's finger. "You can't be serious."

"Damn, if I were Astrid, I'd have backed away real quick," Ruffnut whispered to her brother.

"It's just temporary," Astrid replied as if this should've been obvious. "We're going to get the real things when we can afford them. Besides, you don't need silver or gold when you know it's true love."

Astrid placed her hand behind Hiccup's neck and across his shoulder. Hiccup felt his chest tighten, not because of the gesture but because of her words. When did she become such a good actress? It was unfair how convincing she was because now Hiccup needed to concentrate more on the fact that this all was just pretend and not real, and in just a couple of weeks they'd be back to being the best friends they had been for years.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was exactly why his daily life was all about his suffering at various tempos.

The rest of the day was pretty much them holding each other's hands and stealing a couple quick kisses here and there. They retold their made-up story at least five more times to those who asked fot it, and by the end of the day it felt as though everyone knew about them. When their classes were finished for the day, they took their usual route through the woods that was barely used by anybody else from their school. And if they noticed that they walked so close to each other that their hands were constantly brushing against one another, then neither of them dared to mention it.


	3. Chapter 3

Two weeks went by really fast, and everybody at Berk Gymnasium was already used to the fact that Hiccup and Astrid were engaged. Them kissing, holding hands and sending each other loving looks every other minute was now part of the everyday life at their school, and nobody paid much attention to them anymore.

Hiccup hadn't expected for it all to be this easy. In fact, he had thought that their prank would blow up in their faces because nobody would believe them. Like, who the fuck gets engaged out of nowhere, and to top it off, do it at the age of 18?

It didn't seem to have happened 'out of nowhere' for most people, was the thing. The first few days Hiccup and Astrid had people coming up to them and telling how they 'should've seen it coming' or 'knew there was something there'. At least Astrid seemed as surprised by the response as Hiccup was, so for these two weeks he had been thanking whatever almighty power was up there for not being plain obvious about his crush in front of her.

* * *

They didn't know how to end the prank.

True, they had agreed to doing it for only a couple of weeks, but since it was all going so smoothly and easily, neither of them even brought the subject up. Hell, if it was up for Hiccup to decide, their prank would still be ongoing when they were old enough to lose their teeth just by sneezing a tad bit too hard.

And it wasn't like they had agreed on a specific date, so why not enjoy the moment a week or two longer? How long even was 'a couple of weeks', exactly?

"You know, we should make a next move in this relationship," Astrid stated when they were at her place on a Wednesday evening after school.

They were laying on her bed, Hiccup reading a graphic novel and Astrid doing something on her phone. She was resting her head on Hiccup's back.

"And that is…?" Hiccup asked, looking at his friend over his shoulder, both expectantly and nervously; that look of excitement on Astrid's face could mean anything, and in this case 'anything' really did mean anything.

"We need to start doing things that couples do, outside of school," Astrid said and sat up to position herself next to Hiccup. She leant onto her elbows and shoved her phone in front of Hiccup's face. She put the screen so close to him that he became momentarily blind. "I looked it up and this site has some great stuff on it."

"I can't believe you looked it up," Hiccup said amusedly as he took the phone from Astrid's hand. He scanned through the webpage that had listed down seven things for couples to do. He read the headlines of the list, not bothering to read the detailed descriptions, and after that he looked back at Astrid who was intently staring at him. "So you think we should book a trip to Paris?"

"What? No, I meant the other ones."

Hiccup looked back at the screen and picked the next headline. "Romantic dinner at a restaurant?"

Astrid nodded.

His heart was trying to murder him, but he tried his best to act cool, so he faked his laugh as he spoke: "But we can't afford that."

Astrid thought about that before answering: "We can improvise and do it at home."

"But we can't cook, either."

"No, but where there's a will, there's a way," she said cheerfully, swinging her legs in the air.

Hiccup shook his head in amusement, this time not faking the laughter that erupted from him. "Alright, let's do it. Some weekend it is then, huh?"

Astrid's hummed in agreement and her mouth spread into the most adorable smile Hiccup had ever had the fortune to witness, and just seeing her face lit up like that was enough for him to feel butterflies in his stomach.

They went through the list and Astrid explained how important it is for them to have these couple-y moments on their spare time so that they could retell the experience to their friends and make their prank even more believable. Not that Hiccup disagreed or anything. These things were important.

Really important.

* * *

They hadn't really thought about how they should react to their parents figuring out that something was up. After all, Berk wasn't a large city so news travelled fast, so them finding out was bound to happen. That didn't mean they had prepared themselves for it.

The encounter was unexpected. Hiccup's parents were more often than not away due to the long working hours they did at their work, and whenever they were home, Hiccup was usually hanging out with Astrid.

So when the totally-not-engaged-for-real couple entered Hiccup's home that Friday, they were more than surprised to see Stoick in the hallway. He was getting ready to leave, but something about seeing his son and his best friend made him stop everything he was doing and fix his piercing eyes on them.

This had gone completely unnoticed by Hiccup, though, so when they walked past the large man with a bushy beard, he greeted him with a simple 'hi, Dad' and that would have been it had they had it Hiccup's way.

Stoick had other plans. "Hiccup. Astrid. We need to talk."

They both stopped dead in their tracks and glanced at each other before turning around to look at Hiccup's father. His eyes were narrowed and he was running his hand along his beard.

"What's up?" Hiccup asked innocently, though his mind was already telling him exactly what was going to be up. He gave a quick glance in Astrid's direction and saw her blinking her eyes like a confused doe. The frequency of it made it obvious she was faking it, though.

"What in the devil's name is going on? Everyone's talking about you."

"We…uhm–"

"Are you two engaged?" he wasted no time in getting to the point. He dropped his gaze on their hands which they both had hidden behind their backs.

Hiccup and Astrid looked at each other. What the fuck were they going to do? Was everyone really talking about them?

Astrid broke the eye contact and nodded at Stoick. Hiccup mimicked her as if to confirm it from his side, too.

"I didn't know you were even in a relationship," Hiccup's father said incredulously and seemed to think hard about something. "But maybe this was to be expected," he then said as if that was the conclusion for his thoughts.

"To be expected?" Hiccup repeated, his voice two octaves higher than usual out of mere surprise. Was his father about to tell them that he, too, had an inkling about their relationship before it even existed?

Well, it still didn't exist for real, but still. It existed more than it did a month ago at least.

"There's always been something strange about your friendship, so I suppose I should've seen something like this coming out of it. And Hiccup, let's be real here, if you were stupid enough to get engaged to someone at the age of 18, it would be Astrid."

Hiccup glared at his father and Astrid burst out laughing.

"Thanks for the support, Dad," Hiccup deadpanned, which made Astrid laugh even more. She patted him on his shoulder. "But you're not cross with us?"

Hearing that made Astrid serious again and she quit laughing. They both looked at Stoick intently and studied his face. A part of Hiccup wondered why it mattered so much to him whether or not his father was fine with it since nothing about this situation was real. But then, on the other hand, if his father approved of it, it would mean they could go on with it for a while longer.

"I don't think it's the right choice, but you're 18 and free to do whatever you please. If this makes you two happy then…just be safe and…yeah, you get the point," he mumbled uncomfortably, not knowing how to form his thoughts into words. He had never been good with sweet words and, honestly, Hiccup was so thankful for that right now.

"Thanks, Stoick," Astrid said and smiled. "We appreciate that."

They didn't notice they had moved their hands to the front so their rings were now perfectly displayed to Stoick. He saw them immediately and he took a good look at them before frowning and looking like something wasn't quite right there. His eyes were fixed especially on Hiccup's heart-shaped ring.

"You can take some money from my piggybank; those rings look ridiculous."

"What–"

"No!"

"We don't need–"

"We like these!" Astrid exclaimed.

"Yeah, they're unique! Just like us," Hiccup shouted as loudly.

Astrid looked at him with a 'did you really have to say that' face. Stoick raised his eyebrows, clearly confused by their reaction.

"Alright, alright, don't bite my head off, it was just a suggestion," Stoick said and waved his hand dismissively.

After a pressing silence where no one knew what to say, Stoick exited the house and slammed the front door shut with a loud bang. The two friends looked at each other and couldn't hold in the laughter.

"That was so awkward. I thought he was going to yell at us," she said in between the giggles.

"Tell me about it. I think I'm going to avoid talking to my dad for two months after this."

* * *

Next week's Sunday was they decided that they would end their prank the next day. Hiccup hated how agreeing on that made him feel. He had hoped for their fake engagement to go on for much longer. True, it had been ongoing for three weeks, which was more than enough for a prank, but the thing was that it didn't feel like one. And that had made Hiccup think.

Was it normal to be suddenly so close to one another all the time? It was like the toy rings were magnetic and they were pulling them closer and closer andr they were being oblivious to it. Or they were acting to be so.

What if…just what if…?

Perhaps it was just his wishful thinking.

Anyway, before they would end it all tomorrow, they still had that romantic dinner to get to. It wasn't exactly necessary anymore since the truth would be out within 24 hours and nobody would be asking what they did during the weekend, but they had agreed to do it and neither of them was against the idea.

The planning of the dinner had led them to the real question. How god damn many ingredients could a simple spaghetti bolognese have?

They had looked up a recipe online and then gone through the cupboards to see what they needed to buy from the market. It had turned out that Hiccup's parents didn't have ground meat or spaghetti in the house, and there were zero candles laying around. They were also extremely short on spices, so they needed to add them to the list as well.

Their visit to the local market had an uncomfortable ending as the cashier that had sold them the Kinder eggs was at the counter, and from the looks of it, it was plain clear that she had heard about their engagement, too. She stared at them, or more like their hands, for a long time without saying anything as she scanned the products (yes, they did have candles in stock) and placed them on the other side of the counter.

Just how long would it take until the news about the engagement not being real would spread all over the city? Would they still receive these questioning looks that seemed almost…judging?

When they were back at Hiccup's place, they instantly began with the preparations. Neither of them had much experience when it came to cooking, so they were both anticipating and dreading the result.

"Did you already put the spices on the meat?" Hiccup asked as he glanced at the frying pan on which the ground meat was being prepared.

"Uh…I did put something in it. Taste it," Astrid said absent-mindedly as she was setting the candles on the table and lighting them up.

"No, you do it," Hiccup said, stepping away from the frying pan. "I don't trust that 'something' you put in it."

"I'm setting up the atmosphere here," Astrid said and lifted up the unlit candle she had in her hand.

Hiccup groaned and grabbed a fork to take a small piece of the meat.

"Well?" she asked and raised her head to look at her best friend.

"Not bad," he admitted. Hearing that made Astrid smile so big her teeth were visible and the butterflies in Hiccup's stomach woke up from hibernation once again.

They had no clue what went wrong in the cooking process in the end. When the dinner was ready and they sat around the table, Astrid was the first one to put a forkful of spaghetti and bolognese sauce into her mouth and instead of munching on it, she started coughing.

Hiccup stared at her, his fork frozen in mid-air. Astrid stood up from her chair to spit the contents of her mouth into the trash bin that was behind her.

"It tastes like feet," she said in a drained voice.

"What?" Hiccup asked confusedly and tasted it himself. He spat it on his plate almost as soon as it had entered his mouth. "Oh my god, it's disgusting."

"What can go so wrong in such a simple recipe?" Astrid asked as she sat back on the chair. She poured herself a glass of orange juice and drank half of it in one go.

"Many things, it seems," Hiccup replied.

"We cooked enough spaghetti to feed an army," she said and glanced into the pot in the middle of the table.

"Let's just eat it plain," he suggested. Astrid looked up at him as if he had grown horns. "Or maybe not."

"Yeah, no," Astrid said with a chuckle.

They sat by the table for a long while, just talking to each other and completely forgetting the disaster that was right under their noses. Hiccup had grabbed his fork and was now playing around with the spaghetti on his plate, trying to lift them up one by one and place them on top of the bolognese sauce.

When he looked back up at Astrid, there was a look on her face that could only mean that she had something in mind. Hiccup stopped whatever he was doing and looked at the girl questioningly.

"What?" he asked.

"Another couple thing that we should do since this one failed," Astrid began slowly. Hiccup swallowed loudly and with so much air that for a moment it felt uncomfortable on the walls of his throat. "Is the spaghetti scene from Lady and the Tramp."

Hiccup blinked. His heart didn't want to stay in his chest and he suddenly felt a bit dizzy. "Is that something that couples do?" he asked with a croaked voice.

Astrid shrugged. "They were a couple, so it should be fine," she replied as she played with a lock of her hair with her ring finger.

Their eyes met. Was that nervousness he saw in Astrid's features? God damn, how was she able to look so beautiful even when her face was clouded by uncertainty? If there was one thing Hiccup was certain of, it was that the girl opposite to him was sculpted in another dimension and then sent to this world. She made Hiccup think of sappy things and clichés that had been already said and thought by millions of others.

Why did Astrid have to do so many things to him just by being Astrid?

She took Hiccup's silence the wrong way. "Just forget it."

"What?" Hiccup blurted out in confusion after being snapped out of his daydreaming.

"It was a stupid idea," she said, embarrassment clear in her voice.

"Nononononono," Hiccup said shaking his head. "No," he added for good measure. "We should definitely do it."

"You think?"

Hiccup just nodded. All that nervousness was now gone from Astrid's face and it had been replaced by excitement. They tried to get a whole spaghetti from the pot – all of it had pretty much stuck together after being out of the boiling water for so long.

They finally found the perfect piece of spaghetti, and Hiccup's heart was seriously trying to kill him now. He had no idea why he felt so nervous, but there was something about this moment that made him feel uneasy.

"Should we just put the ends into our mouths and then start eating?" Astrid asked. Her voice was almost a whisper now.

"Yeah, let's do it like that," Hiccup said, his voice as low if not lower.

Astrid got up and walked on the other side of the table where her best friend was sitting. She sat down on the chair next to him and pulled it closer so that their bodies pressed against each other.

She gave him the other end of the spaghetti, which he took in his own hand, trying not to break it. When they had put the ends into their mouths, they looked at each other and Astrid smiled at him and let out a silent chuckle.

Holy mother of Jesus Christ. That girl was beautiful, even with a spaghetti sticking out of her mouth.

If somebody had walked in right now, they'd have probably died of laughter because the entire scenery just looked so ridiculous. As for Hiccup, he couldn't find anything amusing about the situation. He was only focusing on Astrid and how beautiful she looked up close. They had kissed at school, plenty of times in fact, but they were always quick pecks and he didn't have time to admire the beauty right before his eyes. Sitting there, in his parents' kitchen, with nobody else around, he finally had time to just take in everything about her face. Her lips, nose, eyebrows, eyelashes…

Astrid looked at the spaghetti and tried to wordlessly ask Hiccup whether he was ready. Hiccup nodded. They both started biting on their end of the spaghetti and progressing towards the middle. It took them but a few seconds to be so close to one another that their noses were touching.

They both stopped moving. Without realising, Hiccup let go of his end of the spaghetti, and Astrid followed suit. Their eyes were fixed on each other and their breaths were tickling their skin.

"Can I ask something?" Hiccup said in a whisper. He could feel the electricity between them, and he didn't dare to ruin it by speaking too loudly.

"Yes," Astrid said just as quietly.

They were only inches apart from each other. Hiccup noticed how Astrid's eyes were shining in the dim candle light.

"Why do you think everyone believed us so easily?" he asked and his heart began to race even faster. "You know, us being together and all that."

"I don't know," Astrid said so silently that it was barely audible.

"You don't?"

"Do you?"

Hiccup just stared at her for a while, studying her face and the look on it. She was staring right back at him and…wait, was that anticipation gleaming in her eyes? Those perfect blue eyes bore into his soul. He dropped his gaze down to Astrid's slightly parted lips. Her breath danced on Hiccup's skin in an even cycle. Not fully realising what he was doing, he drew a bit closer to her.

He didn't know what gave him the courage to do it. He placed his other hand against Astrid's jawline and closed the distance between their mouths. He closed his eyes, not daring to see the reaction on his best friend's face. Astrid inhaled sharply at the sudden movement. For two seconds Astrid's brain seemed to forget how to function, for she just sat there like stone as Hiccup kissed her gently, but then she threw her hands around his neck and kissed him back hungrily.

Hiccup couldn't believe it. He was filled with such happiness he had never felt before. Everything else around him faded away, and all he could focus on was the feel of Astrid's lips against his and how they were moving in perfect sync. He felt millions of fireworks burst inside him. He couldn't describe everything he was feeling with words; they simply didn't go far enough to capture the moment.

Moments passed. Hiccup didn't know whether they were seconds or minutes, but at some point they had to stop to catch their breaths. They pressed their foreheads against each other, giving themselves a moment to take in everything that just happened.

"Wow," Astrid finally said.

"Yeah," was all that came out of Hiccup's mouth.

"How long?" she asked.

"For a year," he replied.

"One and a half."

Hiccup didn't dare to believe his ears. "Really?"

Astrid just nodded against his forehead. They stayed like that, looking into each other's eyes for a while before they sat up.

"I guess we have been really blind," Astrid stated.

"Yeah, even our friends saw what we didn't," he agreed.

She laughed heartily. "I can't believe we both used the prank as an excuse to be closer to each other when there really was no need for that at all."

"I know right. We will have a bit of explaining to do tomorrow at school."

Their eyes locked and neither of them could stop grinning from ear to ear. It felt absolutely wonderful to have your feelings returned.

Next day at school, the rumours about the engagement being a prank spread really fast, but even with the rings gone, people had hard time believing the rumours true because Hiccup and Astrid were even more attached to each other's sides as before. And, well, could they really blame them?

**the end**

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed this little fic! I had so much fun writing it at least :) **

**Please let me know your thoughts, your reviews always make my day!**


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